Display systems, such as liquid crystal display (LCD) systems, are used in a variety of applications and commercially available devices such as, for example, computer monitors, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, miniature music players, and thin LCD televisions. Most LCDs include a liquid crystal panel and an extended area light source, often referred to as a backlight, for illuminating the liquid crystal panel. Backlights typically include one or more lamps or LEDS and may contain all or some of the following optical components: a reflector, a lightguide plate, bottom diffusers, crossed prism films, reflective polarizers, diffuser cover sheets and absorptive polarizers. The use of such a high volume of backlight components adds to both the necessary size and cost of backlight units. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a backlight that was capable of achieving high-level performance without the necessity of at least some of the components mentioned above.